TRANSACTION NO. 52 APRIL 14TH, 1898

The Historical &*\* Scientific Society

of \'<

Sketch of the Life and Discoveries of

Robert Campbell

CHIEF FACTOR OF THE HON. HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

George Bryce, lld.

A Life Member of the Society

WINNIPEG :

THE MANITOBA FREE PRESS COMPANY

1898

The EDITH and LORNE PIERCECOLLECTION ofCANADIANA

Queens University at Kingston

y¥n- /« (o £

CHIEF FACTOR ROBERT CAMPBELLDiscoverer of the Upper Yukon

SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND DISCOVERIESOF ROBERT CAMPBELL

Chief Factor of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company

The Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba met in

the City Hall, Winnipeg, on the evening of April 14th, 1898. Alarge audience had assembled to hear the papers of the evening.

Chief Factor William Clark, President of the Society, occupied

the Chair. The first paper of the evening was read by Rev. Dr.

Bryce, a life member of the Society, on the " Life and Discov-

eries of the late Chief Factor Robert Campbell. A large map,

prepared by Bulman Bros., was used in following the interesting

account of the explorations of the distinguished discoverer on

Liard River, Dease Lake, the Upper Stikine, and the UpperYukon rivers. Dr. Bryce said as follows :

More than twenty-six years ago, the writer remembers as

one of the first men he met in Red River Chief Factor Robert

Campbell, the discoverer of the Upper Yukon River, which is

the goal of so many gold seekers to-day. Robert Campbell was

a natural leader of men. His tall, commanding figure, sedate

bearing, and yet shrewd and adaptable manner, singled him out

as one of the remarkable class of men who in the service of the

Hudson's Bay Company governed an empire by their personal

magnetism, and held many thousands of Indians in check bytheir honesty, tact and firmness.

Robert Campbell, like so many of the Hudson's Bay Com-pany's officers and men, was of Scottish origin, and was born, the

son of a considerable sheep farmer, in Glenlyon, Perthshire, Scot-

land, on the 21st of February, 1808. Having received a fair

education in his native glen, which was further carried on in

the City of Perth, he was led b}>r Sir George Simpson, the

Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, to come to the

Red River in 1832 to superintend the sheep farm being-

started by the Company at St. James Parish, on the Assiniboine

River, a few miles west of the City of Winnipeg of to-day.

The Hudson's Bay Company at this time seems to have

been in earnest in endeavoring to promote the development of

the Red River as a farming countr}\ That they succeeded so

poorly is probably the reason that they afterwards settled downto the erroneous belief, expressed so decidedly by Sir George

Simpson in the investigation by the Imperial Parliament in

1857, that agriculture could not be successfully carried on in the

country.

The period beginning with 1830 or 1831 was one of great

activity at Red River. Sir George Simpson threw himself with

great vigor into projects for developing the country. We can

do little more than mention them. Indeed, they need little

more than mention, for they ended in failure.

(1) The Buffalo Wool Company, a wild scheme to manufac-

ture cloth from buffalo's wool and to tan the hides for leather.

An absolute loss of upwards of £6,000 sterling gave the

promoters serious cause for reflection.

(2) Sir George promised to take all the Company's supplies

from the colony ; but he was disappointed by the carelessness

and discontent of the people.

(3) An experimental farm was begun on the Assiniboine near

the farm since known as Lane's farm. After six years of effort

the farm failed, having cost the Company £3,500 sterling.

(4) A farm for growing flax and hemp. The flax grew and

the hemp grew, but they rotted in the fields ; while a costly

flax mill to manufacture the product fell into decay.

(5) Sheep from Kentucky. Governor Simpson determined

to introduce the care of sheep as an industry suitable to the

country. A joint stock company was formed. £1,200 was

raised, and the enterprise was begun with high hopes. It was

in connection with this scheme that Robert Campbell came to

the country. In charge of the enterprise was a gentleman of

the Hudson's Bay Company, by name, H. Glen Rae. With him

was associated John P. Bourke, one of the Irish immigrants whohad come with Lord Selkirk's first party. Bourke was a manof education, had served the Company well, and was well fitted

for the task assigned him. In 1833, Rae, Bourke and four

5

others, one of whom was Robert Campbell, crossed the plains to

Missouri to purchase sheep for the new company. Dissatisfied

with the excessive charges of the Missourians, Rae insisted on

going- on to Kentucky, 500 miles further. The sheep were

bought at a price of $1.00 to $2.00 a head, and a party started

with them for the Red River. The journey was most disastrous.

Foot sore and wearied, many of the sheep died by the way.

Pierced by the spear grass (Stipa spartea) many perished ; the

the leaders of the party quarrelled ; the flock became steadily

FORT SIMPSON (Mackenzie River)

less; and of 1475 sheep bought in Kentucky only 251 reached

Red River.

(6) Other unsuccessful schemes, such as the Tallow Com-pany, followed this, but Campbell was sent away to the far

west, and exchanged the peaceful role of shepherd for that of a

trader.

CAMPBELL AS A FUR TRADER.Robert Campbell had from the first the confidence of Sir

George Simpson, and now the Governor despatched him to whatseems to have been the favorite hunting grounds of the early

traders, the Mackenzie River basin. In 1834 he was at Fort

Simpson, and at once took his place as a daring and hardy

explorer of new ground. In 1834 he volunteered to establish a

post at the head waters of a tributary of the Mackenzie and his

offer was accepted. Leaving Fort Simpson, which is on an

island in the Mackenzie River, and near the junction of that

river with the Liard, he ascended the latter river, which was

also known as Mountain River, reached Fort Liard, nearly two

hundred miles from the junction, and passed on as much further to

Fort Halkett, which is built among the mountains. In the winter

of 1837, the ardent explorer went on three or four hundred

miles, enduring great hardships, and in the spring of 1838

succeeded in doing what his predecessors had tried in vain to

accomplish, viz., established a Hudson's Bay Company's post on

Dease Lake at the source of the wild mountain stream. In the

summer of that year the intrepid adventurer crossed to the

Pacific slope and reached the head waters of the Stikine River.

Indeed, he spent this and the following year in journeys of the

most daring kind, in ascending and descending the fierce

mountain streams of the Rocky Mountain divide.

TERRIBLE HARDSHIPS.

The winter of I8S8-9 was to the explorer one of the greatest

trial. The writer has heard the great explorer descant on the

adventures of that eventful year. A new post had been erected

by Campbell to advance the fur trade, and the energy of the

trader awakened the hatred of the Secatqueonays, a tribe who,

with their allies, numbered about six thousand souls. These

Indians lived at the mouth of the Stikine River, and they were

in the habit of going inland for one hundred and fifty miles to

trade at a great village mart, which was only sixty miles from

Campbell's new fort on Dease's Lake. At this time the trader

and his men nearly reached starvation. They were so re-

duced in supplies that they subsisted for some time on the

skin thongs of their moccasins and snowshoes, and on the

parchment windows of their huts boiled up to supply the one

meal a day which kept them alive. Early in the vear 1840

the explorer crossed to the western side of the mountains, and

descending from the head waters of the Stikine, explored this

river for a distance. The Indians, hostile to him on account of

the energy which he displayed, took him and his party prisoners.

The daring party, however, escaped, it has been reported, after

having almost met death, and having to chop down a bridge, to

prevent the pursuing Indians from overtaking them. Camp-

bell's life was only saved by the bravery and devotion of

a female chief who ruled the Nilharnies, the owners of the

trading village which was the rendezvous. Campbell, in his

journal, speaks in the most glowing terms of the fine character

VIEW ON THE UPPER STIKINE

of this Amazon of the mountains, whose humanity proved his

shield in trying times. In the year following his escape, Trader

Campbell was compelled to leave his station on Dease's Lake, and

his fort was burnt by the irreconcileable Indians. The explorer,

however, was greatly satisfied when some time after he received

from Sir George Simpson, in answer to his report, word to the

effect that the Governor and Council had expressed their entire

satisfaction with his energetic action and shrewd management.

In Sir George Simpson's Book, " A Journey Round the World"

(1847) full credit is given to Campbell for his courage and faith-

fulness.

The favorable message from the Governor but urged on the

youthful explorer to new fields of discovery. In going to

Dease's Lake Campbell had taken the more southerly of the

mountain affluents making up the Upper Liard River. Under a

new order he started in 1840 to explore the northern branch of

the Liard. For this purpose he left Fort Halkett, his mountain

rendezvous, in May, and journeyed northward, thinking that

perhaps, though starting below 60° N, he might come upon the

river discovered by Dease and Simpson two years before, run-

ning into the Arctic ocean about 70° N. and called by them the

DEASE'S UKE POST

Colville. Ascending the mountain gorge through which the

swift Liard flows Campbell came to a beautiful lake, to which,

in honor of Lady Simpson, he gave the name Lake Frances.

The lake was divided by a promontory called by him " Simpson's

Tower," and leaving the lake he ascended one of its tributaries,

clambering along its rocky banks, which in turn came from a

small mountain reservoir called by him Finlayson's Lake, as its

affluent was also named. This lake at high water gives one part

of its waters to the Pacific and the other to the Arctic ocean.

( Jampbell, with the hardiest of his seven trusty companions, who

were some of them whites and others Indians, now made an

inland journey of more than a day's march, and saw the high

cliffs of the splendid river, which were named the Pelly Banks

in honor of the Governor in London, Sir Henry Pelly. The

Hudson's Bay Company would have called it Campbell River,

but the unassuming explorer refused the honor. On reaching

the stream the party made a raft and drifted a few miles down,

far enough to see the magnitude of the river. On their return

to Lake Frances they found that their companions had erected a

house at Simpson's Tower, and the explorer called this, in honor

INDIANS AT LA MONTAIGNE'S POST, EIARD RIVER

of his birthplace, " Glenlyon House." Returning with his full

party, Campbell reached Fort Halkett, having been absent four

months.

THE GREAT EXPEDITION.

The result of Campbell's successful discovery was an order

from Sir George Simpson to establish a trading post at the

source of the Liard. This was accomplished, and a post erected

at Frances Lake in 1841. In the following year birch bark was

brought up the river from Fort Liard, and sent during the

10

winter by dog sleighs to Pelly Banks. Here in 1843 an estab-

lishment was erected and arrangements made for descending the

river by means of the canoe built at Pelly Banks. We give

the story of the commencement of his great voyage on the river

in the words of the veteran explorer:

" Early in June, 1843, 1 left Frances Lake with some of the

men. We walked over the mountains to the Pelly Banks, and

shortly after started down stream in the canoe with the inter-

preter Hoole, two French Canadians and three Indians. As weadvanced the river increased in size and the scenery formed a

succession of picturesque landscapes. About twenty-five miles

from Pelly Banks we encountered a bad rapid—Hoole's—where

we were forced to disembark everything. Elsewhere we had a

nice flowing current. Ranges of mountains flanked us on both

sides ; on the right the mountains were generally covered with

wood ; the left range was more open, with patches of green

poplar running up its valleys and burnsides, reminding one of

the green brae-face of the Highland glens."

BAD INDIANS*

The beauty of the scenery and the joy of the explorers as

they floated down the enlarging Pelly cannot be described. But

their day-dream was rudely interrupted. They had reached the

juncture of the Peliy with the Lewis, as they called the new found

stream, and this was 400 or 500 miles from Pelly Banks. Here,

at the spot where afterwards Fort Selkirk was erected, was

encamped a band of " Wood Indians." This being the first band

of explorers down the Pelly, the Indians had never seen white

men before. The savages spoke loud, seemed wild and distant,

and although they smoked the pipe of peace yet were not to be

depended upon. It was the intention of Campbell to proceed

further down the stream, but his hosts would not hear of. it.

They depicted the dangers of the route, spoke of the Indians of

the lower river as being very treacherous, said they were" numerous as the sand," and " would not only kill but eat the

white man." Campbell's men, alarmed by these tales, which were

only too true, would go no further ; and so throwing a sealed

11

can into the river with word of his voyage, he turned his prow

up stream again. No sooner had Campbell started back than

the Indians, showing greater hostility, stealthily followed the

party, and were very nearly falling upon the small band of

voyageurs. Two years afterwards the Indians informed Camp-

bell that they had intended to murder him and his crew. They

depicted very vividly how on one night when it was as clear as

day he had himself, while on guard, kept in his hand something

white. This had been a book, a religious work, of which he

was fond—" Hervey's Meditations,"—some say it was the Bible.

This little book they had regarded as a charm, and it saved

his life. They told him that he had occasionally gone to the

river brink to drink, but that he drank from a horn cup. Hadhe knelt down to drink they would certainly have killed him

and thrown him into the river. Campbell was in his religious

spirit in the habit of attributing his safety on this occasion to

the special care of his Heavenly Father.

DOWN THE PELLY.

The misadventure of the first voyage did not deter the

daring fur traders from seeking out the river again. The

winters were spent in trading between Frances Lake and Pelly

Banks, but in the summer, parties descended the river on hunting

expeditions, and brought back many a quarry of moose, deer

and bear, and supplies of the bighorns or mountain sheep, noted

for the delicacy of their flesh. The constant visits made to Pell}7

banks led to much speculation as to what the outlet of the Pelly

River was. Was it the Colville ? Or was it, as Campbell with

true prescience conjectured, the upper part of the Yukon ? It

was at length determined to place a fort at the junction of the

Pelly and Lewis, the point reached on a former journey a few

years before.

Having spent the winter before in building boats at Pelly

Banks, they sent their returns in early spring down to Fort

Simpson, and in July, 1848, started off with great expectation

to take possession of new territory. Reaching the junction of

the Pelly and Lewis they erected a fort, calling it Fort Selkirk.

12

In this there was a remarkable example of the modesty of the

explorer. It was said that the head officer of the Company in

writing to him called the fort Campbell's Fort, but the sturdy

trader maintained that he knew no such fort, and insisted upon

calling his post Fort Selkirk. For many years the fort, which

now lies in ruins, was known in the region as "Campbell's Fort."

IT IS THE YUKON!While the ardent explorers, along the west of the moun-

tains, had been thus doing1 their work, another movement was

PEEL'S RIVER POST (Fort McPherson)

taking place down the Mackenzie river. That tine navigable

river was descended from Fort Simpson, and its mouth reached

on the Arctic ocean. One of the rivers flowing into the delta

is the Peel. Going up this a short distance, the traders had

come to a point where, by a portage of ninety miles, they were

able to reach the Porcupine river, and descending this they

came upon the grand river of Alaska, the Yukon. Thus reach-

ing the junction of the Porcupine and Yukon in 1847, the

Hudson's Bay Company's trader, A. H. Murray, erected Fort

Yukon, and entered upon the fur trade of the Company. This

advance movement of the Company had been encouraged by the

13

leasing some eight years before of the strip from 54° 40' on the

coast up to Mount St. Elias by the Russians to the Hudson's

Bay Company.

In 1850 Campbell obtained permission from Sir George

Simpson to descend the river from Fort Selkirk, confident that

he would find it to be the Yukon. Accomplishing a journey

from the height of land of about 1.200 miles, Campbell proved

his surmise correct. From Fort Yukon he ascended the Porcu-

pine in company with Murray, crossed on foot to the Peel river

and thence ascending the Mackenzie reached Fort Simpson. He

FORT GOOD HOPE (Mackenzie River)

refers with great glee to the surprise of his friends seeing him

return to the fort up the Mackenzie instead of down the Liard,

as he had been wont to come. The difficulty of the Liard route

may be seen from the fact that the regular Hudson's Bay Corn-

route for transporting the Pelly river furs was by w ay of the

Yukon, Porcupine and up the Mackenzie river.

Campbell, on reaching the junction of the Pelly and Lewis,

built his fort, and for a short time it promised to be an important

centre, but in 1852 a thieving band of coast Indians, called the

Chilkats, made a raid upon Fort Selkirk, plundered and shortly

afterwards destroyed it, so that to this day ruins may be seen

14

at the junction of the the rivers mentioned. After this destruc-

tion, Campbell made one of the most marvellous journeys on

record, walking the whole distance from Fort Simpson to Fort

Garry on snowshoes, which is not less than 2,000 miles. Hethen pushed on on foot to Red Wing, Minnesota.

LATER LIFE,

In 1853, Campbell visited England, and there, under his

direction, maps were prepared by Arrowsmith of the region

explored by him. To few men has been vouchsafed the privilege

of naming the important points in so large a region as Campbell

thus described. The rivers and more notable points were

named by him after his own acquaintances in the Company, or

from the places in his native valley in Perthshire. Such names

as McMillan, Lewis, White and Stewart, given to large tribu-

taries of the Yukon, are illustrations of this. Much indignation

was aroused a few years ago by a worthless subaltern in the

United States Army, Lieut. Schwatka, attempting, after going

over Campbell's ground, to rename the places fixed in Arrow-

smith's map years before by our explorer.

After returning from Scotland, Campbell was sent back to

the Athabasca district, where he remained till 1863. During

the latter part of this time his lonely abode was made joyful by

the arrival of a brave Scottish lady, Miss Eleonora Sterling, whocame in company with her sister, but otherwise unattended, all

the wTay from Scotland to be his bride. The late Consul Taylor

used to describe with great animation this heroic journey of the

Scottish lassies whom he had seen, as they made their overland

journey from St. Paul to Fort Garry of upwards of 400 miles,

and then courageously pushed on to go 400 miles further north

to Norway House to be met by Campbell from his far off post

in Athabasca. Robert Campbell was most devoted to his wife,

and she gave him two sons and a daughter. The writer well

remembers him in 1871, when he had received a few weeks before

the news of the death of his wife, who had gone home to Edin-

burgh. The old fur trader seemed as if he were in a dream,

dwelling on the terrible loss he had sustained.

15

After remaining his full term in Athabasca, Campbell re-

moved east on his appointment to the charge of the Swan River

district. Here he was in charge till 1871, when he retired from the

service with the rank of ChiefFactor. His children were educated

in Edinburgh, and he spent the time in coming and going from the

land of his birth to the western land where he had seen so manyadventures. In 1880, he took up land in Riding Mountain,

Manitoba, erected buildings upon it, and to this home gave the

name Merchiston Ranch. It was his delight to come down once

or twice a year to Winnipeg, attend to necessary business and

spend a few weeks meeting old friends and recalling old times.

This was his life till May 9th, 1894, when he passed away after

a short illness at the ripe age of 86 years and a few months.

He was buried at Kildonan, a large company of old friends

following him to his tomb.

OUR ESTIMATE.

As we examine his life and recall his character, we are

impelled to give an estimate of our old friend, Robert Campbell

:

(1) He was a man cast in an heroic mould. His bravery,

decision of character, honesty of purpose, and devotion to duty

stand out prominently during the period of nearly 40 years in

which he served the Hudson's Bay Compan}T.

(2) His deeply religious nature maintained its fervor and

devotion during the long period of service among heathen

savages in the far west, and among scenes of competitive trade

and at times debauchery and even bloodshed. It was his

delight in earlier days to pay visits to Kildonan, and in his later

years to the Church of his fathers in Winnipeg. He wras a

friend of all good men, and was a man of singular modesty.

(3) Though marrying somewhat late, he was exceedingly

domestic in his habits and was intensely devoted to his wife and

children. His success as a fur trader was recognized by his

company; he was always a favorite of Sir George Simpson ; and

he was singularly free of the arts by which subordinates seek to

ingratiate themselves with their superiors.

(4) His work as an explorer gave him his highest distinc-

16

tion. To this his ardent Highland nature gave him a bias ; the

love of adventure was strong in him ; he laughed at dangers

which would have deterred other men. He had a great faculty

of managing Indians ; and was highly regarded by them. The

glory of being the discoverer of the Upper Yukon, the river of

golden sands, will ever be his.

(5) He was an ornament to the Hudson's Bay Company's

service, which retained a high standard among its officers. It

affords the writer pleasure to testify, having had a large

acquaintance with the officers and men of the Company, that

few, if any, bodies have ever retained a higher standard of honor,

honesty and respectability, among their men than the old Com-pany of 250 years standing, which preserved peace among the

wandering tribes of Indians, kept the British flag flying from

Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean, and worthily earned the

title of the Honorable the Hudson's Bay Company.

A VOTE OF THANKSMr. K. N. L. McDonald, who had been in the service of the

Hudson's Bay Company and had traded in the Liard and

Stikine river districts, and also on the Yukon, Porcupine

and McKenzie Rivers, moved a vote of thanks to Dr. Bryce for

his ably prepared and interesting paper on the life and work of

the late Robert Campbell of the H. B. Co.'s service. This was

seconded by the Rev. Canon Coombes, and unanimously carried.

Mr. McDonald spoke of the feelings of loyalty he experienced on

his passing the site of old Dease Post on Dease Lake in 1887, a post

established by Mr. Campbell in 1838 and abandoned so soon by him.

His admiration for one of the most intrepid explorers of the

North-West of this country, led him to empty his Winchester re-

peating rifle of her 15 charges as a tribute of honor and respect.

He further alluded to his having discovered some old papers

which Mr. Campbell had given to some Indians in the winter of

1838 and 1839. These Indians had evidently considered these

papers of some value, for they very carefully put them in the inside

of birch bark, neatly tied up with sinew, and left them in charge of

a Mr. Callbreath at Telegraph Creek. He was fortunate enough

17

to secure these papers. The first two were simply receipts ofsomedried meat and fish, but the third one was unique in its wayand suggestive. It read in this manner :

" This old scoundrel

wishes me to give him a certificate of character. He has beentrying to starve and murder me all winter.—Robert Campbell."These papers were sent to Mr. Campbell, and it was amusing to

find some time afterwards that, at a banquet given to him in

Montreal, it was reported that these papers were found by Mr.Chief Factor McFarlane on the Skeena River.

Lieutenant Schwatka, commissioned bv the U. S. Govern

-

ABANDONRD POST (Toad River. Uard)

ment, went over wnat is now known as the Dyea Pass, descended

the Lewis River to its junction with the Pelly at Fort Selkirk,

and thence on to the coast. He ignored the names of places

given by Mr. Campbell years before, and in his book coolly

alluded to Mr. CampbeU in these words: "A man namedCampbell is said to have passed here some years ago."

Mr. Campbell in his travels and explorations had not a

better instrument than a pocket compass to enable him to take

observations, and as an evidence of his accuracy, it may be stated

that the map produced from his notes and delineations by Mr.

Arrowsmith, London, England, varies but little from the best

18

maps we have to-day by the Canadian and U. S. Governments.

Mr. Campbell was not only an intrepid explorer and inde-

fatigable traveller, but he was as well a man of deep, strong

religious convictions, and to show his sympathy for the Indians

of the Yukon Valley he in his will gave $1,000 to the mission

work out there, of which my brother, Archdeacon McDonald,

had charge for many years.

Mr. Campbell established Fort Selkirk in 1848. This post

was pillaged by the Chilkat Indians in 1852, and was burned

down in 1853. Mr. Campbell, in the autumn of 1852, came up

to Fort Simpson, at the mouth of the Liard river, and in the

winter of 1852 and 1853 walked out on snowshoes to Fort Garry,

now Winnipeg, as mentioned in the paper.

Note—Dr. Bryce wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. C. C.

Chipmau, Commissioner of the Hudson's Bay Company at Winnipeg, for

the use of the views from which the illustrations of this paper are made.